Wall Street ended the week on a sour note Friday, with all three major indexes finishing in the red as investors grew increasingly nervous about Washington's inability to resolve the federal debt ceiling standoff. The S&P 500 shed roughly 37 points to close near 5,821, while the Nasdaq dropped nearly 1% as rate-sensitive growth stocks felt the most pressure. The Dow slipped under 42,000, erasing gains made earlier in the week.
Treasury yields climbed throughout the session, with the 10-year note pushing back toward 4.65%, a move that rattled equity markets broadly. Gold continued its ascent, touching $3,318 per ounce as nervous investors piled into safe-haven assets. Oil held relatively steady at $74.20 a barrel amid mixed signals from OPEC+ and a modest uptick in U.S. rig counts.
The bright spot of the day was Nvidia, which bucked the broader selloff and gained 2.7% after multiple Wall Street desks raised their price targets ahead of the chipmaker's quarterly results next week. AI infrastructure spending remains a powerful tailwind the market keeps returning to, even on down days.
The VIX climbed to 19.4, its highest close in two weeks, signaling that options traders are bracing for near-term volatility. With a holiday-shortened calendar ahead and debt ceiling talks showing little progress, the path of least resistance may remain choppy.